💾 Archived View for altesq.net › ~evenfire › posts › you-live-in-a-fascist-country.gmi captured on 2023-07-10 at 13:22:55. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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This post is a response to all kinds of discussions I've seen on Gemini lately, especially about the United States. Apologies if it's wide ranging.
For everyone that isn't Western centric, that the United States acts like a fascist country isn't a surprise. It's not 'only' the economy, because the politics are built upon the economic system. Fascism is not it's own 'thing' that just appeared out of the blue, it's Capitalism in decay trying to save itself. I find it funny that citizens of the US always mention, especially liberals, fascism represented by Trump and such figures, when they're just more mask off than their other benevolent corporate leaders. Like that saying goes: "The United States is a one-party state, but we have two because we're America"
Anyone who is surprised by the developments that are going now in the West really ought to take a closer look. Perhaps this will shake off the last impressions of 'democracy'. Of course LGBT rights are getting eroded, they didn't care about minorities in the first place, it was just a pretext to extend imperialism, like they did while invading Iraq and Afghanistan to 'save women and bring democracy'. You don't need to get tied up in etimology, because through all the interventions of the West, I think we saw that democracy equals penetration of Western capital and exploitation of the countries involved. Identity politics misses the point, we need the emancipation of all workers.
The United States was basically an apartheid state until the 1970s when they allowed people of color to vote, not like that impacted their lives that much because voting didn't fix anything, a good example of this is people that said because they 'voted' Obama now racism was gone, which is just beyond silly, I hope they enjoyed all the bombing of kids in the Middle East.
Now you have all these conservatives which long for the good ole' days, in which you had the 'free' market, without seeing that the unrestricted competition in the 1870s led to the monopolies of the beginning of the 20th century, which continue today. The fetishized small producer is getting extinct and does not exist anymore.
Speaking of this, Gemini must be used as a progressive medium, not reactionary. People shouldn't post for the sake of trying to be Gopher V2, or some other old part of the Internet, but for making a better one. The Internet, as it now stands, is basically collapsing due to VC funding and where that led Internet companies, it was only a matter of time. We need strong communities and alternatives, not just 'let's simulate the GOOD internet times'. Sure, let's get the good parts, and avoid the bad ones.
Another argument I hear thrown around is the 'polarization' argument about online platforms. Everyone has heard it by now. It's inherently centrist as it starts off saying polarization is bad. Aside from that, of course people are getting polarized when the world around them is virtually collapsing. Does the Internet contribute to that? Yes. Does it cause that? No. People were fighting before the Internet ever arrived, and will continue to do so after, everyone being in the 'center' and happily agreeing will lead to nowhere. Would it be nice? Of course! Is it realistic? It's not. Conservatives always mention that others don't listen to them when they're the predominant opinion. People have gotten sick and tired to listen to the same bigotry all over again. Returning back to online services, yeah, Facebook contributes a lot to making new fascists, but is it because Facebook just does black magic via its algorithm, or that people are predisposed because of their material conditions?
The imperialism and hegemonic expansion of the United States is a threat to the peace of the world and must be stopped. We can see this happening to a degree with the rise of the multipolar world in front of our eyes. Your institutions won't change by voting. Nor will anything change by clinging to reactionary ideology.
I'll end with one thing, Mussolini defined fascism as the fusion between the state and the corporations. Make of that what you will.